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A review by murfmonkey
Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?: Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock by Gregory Alan Thornbury
4.0
While I wasn’t a huge music fan, I did grow up in the era of Larry Norman and I did love his album “In Another Land,” so I picked up Gregory Thornbury’s short biography of Larry Norman with anticipation.
The book was good, the author didn’t get too involved in mindless detail, and yet had enough detail to make it interesting, but when I finished it, I was left a little unsatisfied. Was Larry Norman the faithful Christian who challenged the church to shake off its lethargy and follow Jesus? Or was Larry Norman the Christian star who went through two divorces and then allegedly fathered a child out of wedlock? The author sort of sidesteps that question. He does talk about both sides of Mr. Norman, but never really attempts to get at the truth, or even really discuss it. It’s as if he’s happy just to present the two sides of him.
Mr. Norman appears to have been the “standard” Christian rock star who isn’t really accountable in his private life to other Christians and has his own view of exactly what it means to be a faithful follower of Jesus. A cursory examination of the history of CCM is a field littered with moral failures, of which it appears that Larry Norman was one (he appears to have had a son after getting an Australian woman pregnant and sort of acknowledges him (signs emails “Dad”) but never really does, and leaves him out of his will). It’s all very weird, and the author of this biography sort of passes over it quickly without really investigating or asking the question, “how does this incident reflect on Larry’s faith?”
Randy Stonehill does not come off very well in this book either, much like Larry Norman, he seems to have profited off the Christian world, but never had any close connection to it, or been in submission to someone(s) who would hold him accountable for his life and following Jesus.
Bizarrely, the author writes at one point: “For many believers, Christianity contains two essential elements: certain doctrines about who God is and how he acted in the world through Jesus, and a series of rules as to when, and with whom, a person may have sex.” This is outright laughable. After being in and around the Christian community for 58 years I can honestly say that I have never heard, read, or talked to, even one Christian who would summarize the Christian faith in such a manner. Indeed, not one person in Christian history besides the author himself has summed up the Christian faith like this. If the author is this ignorant about the basics of the faith, then he probably simply cannot do a good job of putting Larry Norman in his Christian context. Like I said, truly bizarre.
One thing this book does, is point out the perils of being in the Christian music industry, and yet not really be accountable for one’s life and faith to anyone else. I don’t think this was the author’s purpose at all, but he does accomplish it anyway.
The book was good, the author didn’t get too involved in mindless detail, and yet had enough detail to make it interesting, but when I finished it, I was left a little unsatisfied. Was Larry Norman the faithful Christian who challenged the church to shake off its lethargy and follow Jesus? Or was Larry Norman the Christian star who went through two divorces and then allegedly fathered a child out of wedlock? The author sort of sidesteps that question. He does talk about both sides of Mr. Norman, but never really attempts to get at the truth, or even really discuss it. It’s as if he’s happy just to present the two sides of him.
Mr. Norman appears to have been the “standard” Christian rock star who isn’t really accountable in his private life to other Christians and has his own view of exactly what it means to be a faithful follower of Jesus. A cursory examination of the history of CCM is a field littered with moral failures, of which it appears that Larry Norman was one (he appears to have had a son after getting an Australian woman pregnant and sort of acknowledges him (signs emails “Dad”) but never really does, and leaves him out of his will). It’s all very weird, and the author of this biography sort of passes over it quickly without really investigating or asking the question, “how does this incident reflect on Larry’s faith?”
Randy Stonehill does not come off very well in this book either, much like Larry Norman, he seems to have profited off the Christian world, but never had any close connection to it, or been in submission to someone(s) who would hold him accountable for his life and following Jesus.
Bizarrely, the author writes at one point: “For many believers, Christianity contains two essential elements: certain doctrines about who God is and how he acted in the world through Jesus, and a series of rules as to when, and with whom, a person may have sex.” This is outright laughable. After being in and around the Christian community for 58 years I can honestly say that I have never heard, read, or talked to, even one Christian who would summarize the Christian faith in such a manner. Indeed, not one person in Christian history besides the author himself has summed up the Christian faith like this. If the author is this ignorant about the basics of the faith, then he probably simply cannot do a good job of putting Larry Norman in his Christian context. Like I said, truly bizarre.
One thing this book does, is point out the perils of being in the Christian music industry, and yet not really be accountable for one’s life and faith to anyone else. I don’t think this was the author’s purpose at all, but he does accomplish it anyway.